Advertising and attribution

[GA4] Attribution models report

Analyze credit shifts under different attribution models.
Note: The first click, linear, time decay, and position-based attribution models are no longer available as of November 2023. Learn more About the deprecated models.

Use the Attribution models report (formerly called "Model comparison") to compare how different attribution models impact the valuation of your marketing channels.

 

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In this article:

Available attribution models

An attribution model can be a rule, a set of rules, or a data-driven algorithm that determines how credit is assigned to touchpoints along a user's path to completing important actions.

Learn more about the available attribution models.

How to use the report

Access the report

  1. In Google Analytics, click Advertising on the left.
  2. Go to Attribution > Attribution models.

Select date range and key events

Start by selecting a date range from the date picker drop-down menu at the top right. Then select one or more key events from the drop-down menu at the top left of the report. By default, all key events are selected and aggregated together in the report.

Note: The Attribution reports include data from June 14, 2021 onwards.

Add a filter (optional)

The report displays data from all users. To see data for a specific set of users, click Add filter at the top left.

Examples

You might want to filter for:

  1. A specific campaign to see how attribution models value touchpoints for that given media initiative. Create an Include filter, select User campaign under Acquisition, and select your campaign name as your dimension value.
  2. Certain regions to understand how attribution models value touchpoints based on the different initiatives you have in each region. Create an Include filter, select Region under User, and select your desired dimension values.
  3. Device category to understand performance on different devices. Create an Include filter, select Device category under Device, and select desktop, mobile, and tablet as your dimension values.

Select dimension to report on

The data table shows your data broken out by the Default channel group dimension. Use the drop-down to view data by the Source/medium, Source, Medium, or Campaign dimensions.

Select attribution models to compare

Use the drop-down in the Attribution model (non-direct) columns to choose which attribution models to compare.

Note: Google Analytics 4 uses last click as the attribution model for all Google Ads conversions that are based on key events. Only key events where Google Ads is the last non-direct click are used to create conversions in Google Ads, even if a non-last click attribution model is selected in Ads. If you wish to compare key events for an attribution model in Google Ads against an attribution model in Google Analytics 4 you must select paid and organic channels last click to get an accurate comparison of the data.

Customize report

Click Edit comparisons to change what's displayed in the report. In the Customize report panel, you can add a filter or change the reporting time.

Filters

The report shows data from all users. Click the filter name to edit or add filters.

Reporting time

The default is Event time.

  • Ad interaction time: This reflects attributed credit for all touchpoints occurring in the specified time range. Note that key events may happen after the specified time range.
  • Event time: This reflects attributed credit for all touchpoints occurring in the key event lookback window prior to the key events in the specified time range. Note that these touchpoints may happen before the specified time range.

Share, download, or export report

Click Share this report in the top right to share, download, or export the data currently shown in the table.

Understand the data

The data table shows your data broken out by the Default channel group dimension. For each channel, it shows 2 metrics as calculated by the selected attribution models:

  • Key events: Count of key events that are attributed to the selected dimension
  • Revenue: Amount of revenue that is attributed to the selected dimension

The Revenue metric in the report uses the same calculation method as the one used for the Purchase revenue metric.

The % Change columns show the percentage by which key events and revenue increase or decrease under different attribution models.

Unattributable dimensions

In some cases, Analytics is unable to display dimension values because they're missing or otherwise unavailable. To keep the key event and revenue credit totals accurate, the report might show one or more of the following values:

Value Definition
(not set) (not set) is a placeholder name that Analytics uses when it hasn't received any information for the dimension you have selected. For example, manually tagged URLs could be missing a parameter like campaign, source, or medium
Unassigned

Unassigned is the value Analytics uses when there are no other channel rules that match the event data

Direct

Direct is the value that Analytics uses when there is no path data for which to credit the key event; for example, data import

Unattributable Unable to assign credit for the dimension you've selected
(Other) (Other) is the value Analytics uses for an aggregated row due to cardinality limits. Learn more

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